Survivors' Rights

Five years ago, Sequel Youth & Family Services ran a chain of treatment programs that took in and tried to help troubled kids from all over the United States. It was valued by investors at more than $400 million. The company dreamed of dominating America’s $220 billion behavioral health care industry. Today, however, Sequel has all but vanished.

Lieff Cabraser is actively investigating disturbing reports of abuse and mistreatment of youth at Sequel Youth & Family Services.

Following a barrage of abuse scandals and media attention, including a 2020 investigation by APM Reports, the company has shut down close to half of its treatment centers and sold assets to Vivant Behavioral Healthcare.

Sequel shut down treatment centers where alleged abuse surfaced. Further, the company vowed to reduce the use of physical restraints on children. But despite those efforts, in 2020, a 16-year-old boy died after staff at Sequel’s Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, held him on the floor for 12 minutes.

Lieff Cabraser represents survivors across the U.S. who have been victimized by institutional sexual violence and sexual abuse. We treat every client with care, respect, and compassion as we bring our comprehensive legal skills forward on each case. We have a dedicated team of lawyers, nurse consultants, and paralegals experienced in working with and listening to survivors who work individually with every client in every case to see that justice is won.

Our firm’s successful prosecution of civil survivor rights cases includes the 2022 settlement with the University of Michigan relating to student abuse that occurred from 1968 through 2003 that established and implemented landmark policy and procedural reforms at the University, and the $215 million settlement obtained on behalf of nearly 18,000 women who were abused while students at the University of Southern California from 2000 through 2018. Talk to us today.

If a school, church, sports team, hospital, or another institution failed to protect you from abuse, we may be able to help you hold that institution accountable, and possibly seek compensation and practice changes to prevent that failure from happening again to you or others. We urge you to contact a survivor’s rights lawyer at Lieff Cabraser today about your potential case and recovery.

If you were the victim of abuse unrelated to a larger institution, representation by our firm may not be the best option for your situation. We encourage you to consider representation by other attorneys, as well as support from resources like RAINN.org, WomensLaw.org, MaleSurvivor.org, 1in6.org (another resource for male survivors), iSurvive.org, and AfterSilence.org.

If you or a family member have experienced abuse while under the care of Sequel Youth & Family Services or Vivant, we urge you to contact a survivors’ rights lawyer at Lieff Cabraser today about your case and potential recovery. You can call us toll-free at 1 800 541-7358 or use the form on this page to send us a confidential message.